There are work vehicles, such as, for example, backhoe loaders, which have a mechanical front wheel drive (abbreviated herein as MFWD). As used herein, a “MFWD” is a front wheel drive that is mechanically operable by a transmission of the vehicle via a clutch in order to activate the MFWD (i.e., MFWD mechanically connected to the transmission output) and deactivate the MFWD (i.e., mechanically disconnected from the transmission output).
The MFWD may be activated, for example, when ground conditions or a particular task calls for additional traction, i.e., in addition to the traction provided by a mechanical rear wheel drive (abbreviated MRWD) also mechanically operable by the transmission via, for example, another clutch. In other words, the MFWD may be activated to obtain rear-wheel drive and front-wheel drive operation in order to transfer power to both the rear wheels and the front wheels. On the other hand, MFWD may be deactivated to revert to rear-wheel drive only operation in order to transfer power to only the rear wheels.
It is known to activate and deactivate the MFWD by use of a conventional detent-style MFWD switch. In such a case, the MFWD is activated in a continuous manner when the switch is detented in a maintain-ON position and deactivated in a continuous manner when the switch is detented in a maintain-OFF position. Typically, such a switch is located on a switch panel separate from function input devices like the steering wheel or a loader input device on a backhoe loader.